About the Data Security Awareness programme

The NHS Digital Data Security Awareness Level 1 training has been archived and replaced with a new version of the training.

The Data Security Awareness Level 1 session now meets the statutory and mandatory training requirements and learning outcomes for Information Governance (IG) in the UK Core Skills Training Framework (UK CSTF) as updated in May 2018, to include General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

This session is also aligned to the new data security standards that came out of the National Data Guardian’s 2016 review. It therefore meets the requirement for Level 1 staff training in data security.

An eAssessment should be completed to demonstrate the required knowledge and understanding and to complete the training.

The previous course will remain accessible within an archive folder until 31 March 2019 enabling users and local administrators to access historic certificates and report on learning history to support your Data Security and Protection Toolkit 2018/19 submissions.

A separate Data Security Awareness Survey is also available alongside the new course. This survey has been developed by NHS Digital to assist organisations in understanding the data security awareness of its staff. Local administrators will have access to a report detailing the outcomes of the survey to facilitate IG Toolkit submissions.

Level 2 - Specialist training

NHS Digital has been providing accredited training to IT and security professionals across health and care to build local capability in security best-practice. Training has been piloted with over 300 professionals with positive feedback.

NHS Digital intends to continue providing accredited security training to relevant staff across the sector and is commencing engagement activity to understand security skill and education needs to shape the future provision of training. This will provide opportunities for IT and security staff across health and care to undertake professional accredited training wherever possible, ensuring that organisations have suitably skilled operational staff to improve security control and preparedness. Any future correspondence will be to named IT and security leads from the NHS Digital Data Security Centre. If you are interested in receiving any future training please contact cybersecurity@nhs.net.

Level 3 - Board awareness training

NHS Digital are currently piloting the provision of Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)-accredited cyber and information security awareness sessions with NHS Boards. A decision has not yet been made on a future rollout, but if you are interested in your Board receiving this training, please contact cybersecurity@nhs.net.

How to access

If you already have an account with e-LfH, then you can enrol on to the Data Security Awareness programme by logging in to the e-LfH Hub, selecting My Account > Enrolment and selecting the programme. You can then access the programme immediately in the My e-Learning section.

NHS healthcare staff in England

The Data Security Awareness programme is also available to NHS healthcare staff via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). Accessing this e-learning via ESR means that your completions will transfer with you throughout your NHS career.

Other health or care organisations

In the event that you do not qualify for free access to the Data Security Awareness programme via the e-LfH Hub, you may be able to access the service via OpenAthens.

First check whether or not you qualify for direct access by selecting the Register button via the following link https://portal.e-lfh.org.uk. After entering your work email address, you will be directed to enter additional details about your role and location. If you are presented with alternative registration options, your email address has not been recognised and you will not qualify for direct access to the Data Security Awareness programme. If this happens and you think that you should qualify for free access to the learning material via the e-LfH Hub, please contact e-LfH.

To check whether or not you qualify for free access via OpenAthens, you can view the eligibility criteria and register on the ‘OpenAthens’ portal.

Registering large numbers of users

If you are a HR, IT or Practice Manager and would like to register and enrol large numbers of staff within your organisation for access onto the Data Security Awareness programme, please contact e-LfH directly.

Organisations wishing to use their own LMS

For HR departments wanting to know more about gaining access to courses using an existing Learning Management System please contact e-LfH directly to express interest.

More information

Please select the following link for more information on how to use the e-LfH Hub.